Systems and methods for sensing in half duplex networks

ABSTRACT

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to integration of sensing and wireless communications. Wireless communication networks can configure and implement both sensing signals and communication signals. Sensing signals, or sensing reference signals, can be used to determine properties of the environment, and do not carry any information or data for the purpose of communications. Communication signals, on the other hand, are signals that carry information or data between network entities. Sensing agents can be used for both passive and active sensing. Sensing agents may be dedicated devices capable of performing passive sensing, active sensing, or both. Sensing agents can also be existing networks device such as user equipment or transmit receive points. Methodologies described here may be particularly beneficial for half-duplex systems, but could also be implemented in full duplex systems.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/564,671 filed on Sep. 9, 2019, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications, andin particular embodiments, for sensing in half duplex networks.

BACKGROUND

In some wireless communication networks, user equipments (UEs)wirelessly communicate with a base station to send data to the basestation and/or to receive data from the base station. A wirelesscommunication from a UE to a base station is referred to as an uplink(UL) communication, and a wireless communication from a base station toa UE is referred to as a downlink (DL) communication. A wirelesscommunication from a first UE to a second UE is referred to as asidelink (SL) communication or a device-to-device (D2D) communication.

Sensing in the form of radar has been used for a long time in militaryapplications and more recently in the car industry with a goal ofdetecting a target's range, velocity and shape. While originally radarwas been implemented as stand-alone application, many research workshave studied the possibility of integration between radar andcommunications. It has been shown that radar sensing and communicationscan use the same hardware and the same waveform in order to perform inan integrated fashion. The main focus of these research works hasinvolved waveform design, including single-carrier, multi-carrier,ultra-wide band (UWB) pulse and Frequency-Modulated Continuous Wave(FMCW).

Commercial communications networks today consist of half-duplex nodes.Although there are many practical implementations for full-duplexsystems that show promising performance, even if full duplex nodesbecome practical in the future, a majority of wireless network nodeswill likely still be half-duplex. Full duplex implementation is morechallenging in higher frequencies (like millimeter wave bands) and it isvery challenging in low cost nodes (like in FemtoCells) and for userequipment (UEs). Wireless communications can potentially be improvedwhen properties of a wireless communication network and its surroundingenvironment are known.

SUMMARY

Sensing signals or sensing reference signals can be used to determineproperties of a wireless communication network and its surroundingenvironment. Such properties could include the location and/or velocityof UEs, and the location and/or velocity of scattering objects thatobstruct communication signals. The concept of using a sensing agent foractive sensing and/or passive sensing is introduce to enable sensing tobe performed in a communication network. Active sensing as used hereinis intended as the transmission of a sensing reference signal. Passivesensing as used herein is intended as the detection of a reflection of asensing reference signal. The sensing agent can be a stand-alonededicated device, a UE or even a combination of multiple transmitreceive points (TRPs).

According to a first aspect of the disclosure, there is provided amethod for use in a telecommunication system. The method involves asensing agent receiving configuration information for configuringtransmission of a sensing reference signal (SeRS) to be transmitted bythe sensing agent during a transmission resource of a first transmitreceive point (TRP). The method also involves the sensing agenttransmitting the SeRS based on the configuration information.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the sensing agentperforming passive sensing on a reflection of a downlink transmissionfrom the first TPR.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the sensing agentnotifying the first TRP of sensing information resulting from thepassive sensing on the reflection of the downlink transmission from theTPR.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the sensing agentreceiving configuration information for configuring when the sensingagent can perform passive sensing of a reflection from transmission bythe first TRP.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the sensing agentreceiving configuration information for configuring when the sensingagent can perform passive sensing of a reflection from transmission byone or more other TRP; and the sensing agent performing sensing of areflection from the one or more other TRP.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the sensing agentnotifying at least one of the first TRP or the one or more other TRP ofsensing information resulting from performing passive sensing of thereflection by the one or more other TRP.

In some embodiments, the sensing agent is a user equipment (UE).

In some embodiments, the method further involves the UE receiving asensing node identifier (ID).

In some embodiments, the UE transmits the SeRS on a first beam and theUE uses a different beam for uplink, downlink or sidelinktelecommunications transmissions.

In some embodiments, receiving the configuration information occurs inone or more of: L1 signalling; Radio resource control (RRC) signaling;media access control (MAC) control elements (CEs); and X2/Xn signaling.

In some embodiments, the sensing agent notifying the first TRP ofsensing information occurs in one or more of: L1 signalling; Radioresource control (RRC) signaling; media access control (MAC) controlelements (CEs); and X2/Xn signaling.

According to a second aspect of the disclosure, there is provided amethod for use in a telecommunication system. The method involves atransmit receive point (TRP) transmitting configuration information forconfiguring transmission of a sensing reference signal (SeRS) to betransmitted by a sensing agent during a transmission resource of theTRP. The method also involves the TRP detecting a reflection of the SeRStransmitted by the sensing agent based on the configuration information.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the TRP performingsensing parameter estimation regarding a surrounding environment of theTRP based on the detected reflection.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the TRP performinginterference suppression to suppress interference between uplinktransmissions and at least one of: the SeRS from the TRP; and SeRS fromother TRP or sensing agents.

In some embodiments, performing interference suppression comprises atleast one of: joint radar estimation and data decoding using maximumlikelihood estimation or successive interference cancellation; receivingbeamforming to separate at least one reflected SeRS and uplinktransmissions; and scheduling and power control for uplink users tominimize interference.

In some embodiments, the method further involves transmittingconfiguration information for configuring sensing of a reflection of aSeRS transmitted by the TRP during a transmission resource of the firstTRP.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the TRP receivingsensing parameter estimation information from one or more sensing agentsregarding a surrounding environment of the TRP.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the TRP notifyingneighbouring TRPs of received sensing parameter estimation informationfrom one or more sensing agents regarding the surrounding environment ofthe TRP.

In some embodiments, transmitting the configuration information occursin one or more of: L1 signalling; Radio resource control (RRC)signaling; media access control (MAC) control elements (CEs); and X2/Xnsignaling.

In some embodiments, receiving sensing parameter estimation informationoccurs in one or more of: L1 signalling; Radio resource control (RRC)signaling; media access control (MAC) control elements (CEs); and X2/Xnsignaling.

According to a third aspect of the disclosure, there is provided amethod for use in a telecommunication system. The method involves asensing agent receiving configuration information for configuringpassive sensing of a reflection of a sensing reference signal (SeRS) byone or more TRP during a transmission resource of the one or more TRP.The method also involves the sensing agent detecting the reflected SeRSbased on the configuration information.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the sensing agentnotifying a first TRP of the one or more TRP of sensing informationresulting from the detecting the reflected SeRS of the first TRP.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the sensing agentreceiving configuration information for configuring receipt of areflected SeRS, the SeRS to be transmitted by a second TRP of the one ormore TRP during a transmission resource of the second TRP; and thesensing agent detecting the reflected SeRS based on the configurationinformation.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the sensing agentnotifying at least one of the first TRP or the second TRP of sensinginformation resulting from the detecting the reflected SeRS transmittedby the second TRP.

In some embodiments, receiving the configuration information occurs inone or more of: L1 signalling; Radio resource control (RRC) signaling;media access control (MAC) control elements (CEs); and X2/Xn signaling.

In some embodiments, the method further involves the sensing agentnotifying the at least one of the first TRP or the second TRP of sensinginformation occurs in one or more of: L1 signalling; Radio resourcecontrol (RRC) signaling; media access control (MAC) control elements(CEs); and X2/Xn signaling.

According to a fourth aspect of the disclosure, there is provided amethod for use in a telecommunication system. The method involves atransmit receive point (TRP) transmitting a sensing reference signal(SeRS) during a transmission resource of the TRP. The method alsoinvolves the TRP receiving sensing parameter estimation information fromone or more sensing agents regarding a surrounding environment of theTRP.

In some embodiments, at least one of the one or more sensing agents areneighbouring TRPs.

In some embodiments, the neighbouring TRPs are in an uplink portion oftheir respective transmission resources.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present embodiments, and theadvantages thereof, reference is now made, by way of example, to thefollowing descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system in whichembodiments of the disclosure may occur;

FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C are block diagrams of an example user equipment,base station and sensing agent, respectively, according to aspects ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 3A is a block diagram of an air interface manager for configuring asoftware-configurable air interface according to an aspect of thepresent disclosure;

FIGS. 3B and 3C are diagrams illustrating example transmission framesaccording to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a first example communication systemimplementing sensing according to aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a second example communication systemimplementing sensing according to aspects of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a first method according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a second method according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a third method according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating a fourth method according to anembodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

For illustrative purposes, specific example embodiments will now beexplained in greater detail below in conjunction with the figures.

The embodiments set forth herein represent information sufficient topractice the claimed subject matter and illustrate ways of practicingsuch subject matter. Upon reading the following description in light ofthe accompanying figures, those of skill in the art will understand theconcepts of the claimed subject matter and will recognize applicationsof these concepts not particularly addressed herein. It should beunderstood that these concepts and applications fall within the scope ofthe disclosure and the accompanying claims.

Moreover, it will be appreciated that any module, component, or devicedisclosed herein that executes instructions may include or otherwisehave access to a non-transitory computer/processor readable storagemedium or media for storage of information, such as computer/processorreadable instructions, data structures, program modules, and/or otherdata. A non-exhaustive list of examples of non-transitorycomputer/processor readable storage media includes magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,optical disks such as compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digitalvideo discs or digital versatile discs (i.e. DVDs), Blu-ray Disc™, orother optical storage, volatile and non-volatile, removable andnon-removable media implemented in any method or technology,random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electricallyerasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or othermemory technology. Any such non-transitory computer/processor storagemedia may be part of a device or accessible or connectable thereto.Computer/processor readable/executable instructions to implement anapplication or module described herein may be stored or otherwise heldby such non-transitory computer/processor readable storage media.

Some aspects of the present disclosure relate to sensing in a wirelesscommunication network, which allows the network to determine informationregarding the surrounding environment. For example, sensing coulddetermine the location, shape and/or velocity of one or more objects inthe environment. These objects could include network entities thatcommunicate within the network and scattering objects that canpotentially disrupt communications in the network. A benefit of sensingis that the network can configure communication signals between networkentities based on measured properties of the current environment.

By way of example, when the location of a transmitter, an intendedreceiver, and any potential scattering objects are known to the network,the network can determine a trajectory from the transmitter to theintended receiver that avoids the scattering objects or is leastimpacted by the scattering objects. Based on this trajectory, thenetwork can configure a suitable communication signal for transmissionto the intended receiver. Beamforming is one method that can be used todirect signals along a particular trajectory. When the trajectory to theintended receiver has been determined with a desired precision, narrowbeamforming can be implemented for communication with that intendedreceiver. Narrow beamforming can increase the received power at theintended receiver, and reduce interference for other receivers in thenetwork. Having knowledge of the velocity of the intended receiver canalso allow the network to predict the future location of the intendedreceiver and configure future communication signals to that receiveraccordingly.

One method for sensing is radar. Radar has been previously used inmilitary applications and in the car industry, often with the goal ofdetecting the range, velocity and/or shape of certain objects.Conventionally, radar has been implemented as stand-alone application.

After a radar signal is transmitted, a reflection of that radar signaloff of an object can be received and measured. These reflections canindicate certain properties of the object, non-limiting examples ofwhich include range, location, shape, speed and velocity of the object.The range of the object (for example, the distance from the receiver ofthe radar signal to the object) can be determined based on thetime-of-flight for the radar signal, and/or by using frequencymodulation. The location of the object can be determined based on therange of the object and the direction that the radar signal wastransmitted and/or received. For example, beamforming can be used totransmit radar signals in particular directions. The velocity and/orspeed of an object can be determined based on a change in the objectsposition over time, and/or based on the Doppler shift of the receivedradar signal.

Radar systems can be monostatic and/or bistatic. In monostatic radar,the transmitter of a radar signal is also used to receive the reflectionof the radar signal. In bistatic radar, the transmitter of a radarsignal is different from the receiver of the reflection of the radarsignal.

There are fundamental bounds on range resolution and velocity resolutionfor a radar signal, which depend on the transmission time (TW),bandwidth (BW) and carrier frequency (f_(c)) of the radar signal. Thesefundamental bounds exist regardless of the waveform and transmissionscheme of the radar signal. The equations for range resolution (ΔR) andvelocity resolution (Av) are provided below:

$\begin{matrix}{{\Delta R} \geq \frac{c_{0}}{2BW}} & \left( {{Equation}\mspace{20mu} 1} \right) \\{{\Delta\; v} \geq \frac{c_{0}}{2T_{w}f_{c}}} & \left( {{Equation}\mspace{20mu} 2} \right)\end{matrix}$

In equation 1 and equation 2 above, c₀ denotes the speed of light. Basedon these equations, to improve range resolution a larger bandwidth isneeded, and to improve velocity resolution a larger transmission timeand/or a higher carrier frequency is needed.

In wireless networks, a key challenge of sensing in half duplex is thefact that a receiver cannot listen to a reflected signal beforetransmission of the signal is completed. When the distance between thetransmitter and the targets is limited, it is highly possible that thereceiver may miss the reflection completely by the time the transmissionends. This means that if the same node is to be used for sensing in thehalf duplex mode, the only viable solution is to use a very narrow pulse(like in pulse radar). For example, assuming a target is 300 metersaway, a delay between a received signal (reflected from the target) andthe transmitted signal is 2 μs and hence, a pulse duration should beless than 2 μs to make sure the reflection is not missed by thereceiver. In reality, this constraint is more severe as there arereflectors and targets within a distance of much less than 300 meters.Having such a constraint on the pulse duration has the followingdrawbacks:

-   -   It limits the opportunity of integration with communications        signals and equipment, which mainly utilizes OFDM waveforms. The        symbol duration for OFDM transmissions is much longer than this        to accommodate a cyclic prefix (CP). It can be multiplexed with        communication signals using time domain multiplexing (TDM), but        signal overhead involved in doing so is not justifiable. Also,        it is not clear whether or not the same radio frequency (RF)        chain can be used for both sensing and communications.    -   Having a narrow pulse for sensing limits accuracy of target        velocity estimation.

In view of the above constraints, it turns out that using the sametransceiver for sensing is not practical for half duplex nodes.Therefore, other solutions are needed to enable efficient sensing inhalf duplex systems.

This is not a big issue in traditional radar systems, as either fullduplex capability is considered by having good isolation betweentransmitter and receiver hardware and/or due to a large distance betweenthe transmitter and target, such that round trip delay allows forlistening to the reflected signal after transmission is completed.

Some aspects of the present disclosure relate to the integration ofsensing and wireless communications. For example, wireless communicationnetworks could configure and implement both sensing signals andcommunication signals. Sensing signals, which could also be referred toas sensing reference signals, are used to determine properties of theenvironment, and do not carry any information or data for the purpose ofcommunications. Communication signals, on the other hand, are signalsthat carry information or data between network entities. A possiblebenefit of implementing both sensing and communications operations isthat the network can configure communication signals based on theinformation determined from sensing. This is referred to assensing-assisted communications. For example, sensing could determinethe location of an intended receiver and enable narrow beamforming tothat receiver. Communication-assisted sensing is also contemplated.Sensing signals and communication signals could be implemented using thesame hardware and/or the same waveform in order to operate in anintegrated fashion.

Sensing agents are nodes in a network that can assist in the sensingoperation. These nodes can be stand-alone nodes dedicated to justsensing operations or other nodes (for example transmit and receivepoints (TRPs) or UEs) doing the sensing operations in parallel withcommunication transmissions. In cases where the sensing agents areimplemented as stand-alone nodes, the sensing can be implemented in thevicinity of some corresponding TRPs to ensure that the distance betweenthe TRP and a target is approximately the same as the distance betweenthe sensing agent and the target to simplify range estimation. Anothercondition than needs consideration is that the sensing agent and the TRPare synchronized in time and frequency (for example, by accessing thesame clock for time synchronization).

FIGS. 1, 2A, 2B and 2C illustrate examples of networks and devices thatcould implement any or all aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication system 100. In general, thesystem 100 enables multiple wireless or wired elements to communicatedata and other content. The purpose of the system 100 may be to providecontent (voice, data, video, text) via broadcast, narrowcast, userdevice to user device, etc. The system 100 may operate efficiently bysharing resources such as bandwidth.

In this example, the communication system 100 includes electronicdevices (ED) 110 a-110 c, radio access networks (RANs) 120 a-120 b, asensing agent 122, a core network 130, a public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN) 140, the Internet 150, and other networks 160. Whilecertain numbers of these components or elements are shown in FIG. 1, anyreasonable number of these components or elements may be included in thesystem 100.

The EDs 110 a-110 c are configured to operate, communicate, or both, inthe system 100. For example, the EDs 110 a-110 c are configured totransmit, receive, or both via wireless communication channels. Each ED110 a-110 c represents any suitable end user device for wirelessoperation and may include such devices (or may be referred to) as a userequipment/device (UE), wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), mobilestation, mobile subscriber unit, cellular telephone, station (STA),machine type communication device (MTC), personal digital assistant(PDA), smartphone, laptop, computer, touchpad, wireless sensor, orconsumer electronics device.

In FIG. 1, the RANs 120 a-120 b include base stations 170 a-170 b,respectively. Each base station 170 a-170 b is configured to wirelesslyinterface with one or more of the EDs 110 a-110 c to enable access toany other base station 170 a-170 b, the core network 130, the PSTN 140,the internet 150, and/or the other networks 160. For example, the basestations 170 a-170 b may include (or be) one or more of severalwell-known devices, such as a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B(NodeB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a Home eNodeB, a gNodeB, atransmission and receive point (TRP), a site controller, an access point(AP), or a wireless router. Any ED 110 a-110 c may be alternatively oradditionally configured to interface, access, or communicate with anyother base station 170 a-170 b, the internet 150, the core network 130,the PSTN 140, the other networks 160, or any combination of thepreceding. The communication system 100 may include RANs, such as RAN120 b, wherein the corresponding base station 170 b accesses the corenetwork 130 via the internet 150, as shown.

Any or all of the EDs 110 a-110 c and base stations 170 a-170 b could besensing nodes in the system 100. Sensing nodes are network entities thatperform sensing by transmitting and/or receiving sensing signals. Somesensing nodes are communication equipment that perform bothcommunications and sensing. However, some sensing nodes do not performcommunications, and are instead dedicated to sensing. The sensing agent122 is an example of a sensing node that is dedicated to sensing. Unlikethe EDs 110 a-110 c and base stations 170 a-170 b, the sensing agent 122does not transmit or receive communication signals. However, this doesnot exclude the sensing agent 122 from communicating configurationinformation, sensing information, or other information within thecommunication system 100. The sensing agent 122 is in communication withthe core network 130 to communicate information with the rest of thecommunication system 100. By way of example, the sensing agent 122 maydetermine the location of the ED 110 a, and transmit this information tothe base station 170 a via the core network 130. Although only onesensing agent 122 is shown in FIG. 1, any number of sensing agents maybe implemented in the communication system 100. In some embodiments, oneor more sensing agents could be implemented at the RANs 120 a-120 b.

The EDs 110 a-110 c, base stations 170 a-170 b and sensing agent 122 areexamples of network entities that can be configured to implement some orall of the functionality and/or embodiments described herein. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 1, the base station 170 a forms part of the RAN120 a, which may include other base stations, base station controller(s)(BSC), radio network controller(s) (RNC), relay nodes, elements, and/ordevices. Any base station 170 a, 170 b may be a single element, asshown, or multiple elements, distributed in the corresponding RAN, orotherwise. Also, the base station 170 b forms part of the RAN 120 b,which may include other base stations, elements, and/or devices. Eachbase station 170 a-170 b transmits and/or receives wireless signalswithin a particular geographic region or area, sometimes referred to asa “cell” or “coverage area”. A cell may be further divided into cellsectors, and a base station 170 a-170 b may, for example, employmultiple transceivers to provide service to multiple sectors. In someembodiments, there may be established pico or femto cells where theradio access technology supports such. In some embodiments, multiplenon-collocated transceivers could be used for each cell, for exampleusing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. The number ofRAN 120 a-120 b shown is exemplary only. Any number of RAN may becontemplated when devising the communication system 100.

The base stations 170 a-170 b communicate with one or more of the EDs110 a-110 c over one or more air interfaces 190 using wirelesscommunication links e.g. radio frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR),etc. The air interfaces 190 may utilize any suitable radio accesstechnology. For example, the communication system 100 may implement oneor more orthogonal or non-orthogonal channel access methods, such ascode division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access(TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), Space DivisionMultiple Access (SDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), or single-carrier FDMA(SC-FDMA) in the air interfaces 190. In addition, the communicationsystem 100 may operate in time division duplex (TDD) and/or frequencydivision duplex (FDD) modes.

A base station 170 a-170 b may implement Universal MobileTelecommunication System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) toestablish an air interface 190 using wideband CDMA (WCDMA). In doing so,the base station 170 a-170 b may implement protocols such as High SpeedPacket Access (HSPA), Evolved HPSA (HSPA+) optionally including HighSpeed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), High Speed Packet Uplink Access(HSUPA) or both. Alternatively, a base station 170 a-170 b may establishan air interface 190 with Evolved UTMS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA)using LTE, LTE-A, New Radio (NR) and/or LTE-B. It is contemplated thatthe communication system 100 may use multiple channel accessfunctionality, including such schemes as described above. Other radiotechnologies for implementing air interfaces include IEEE 802.11,802.15, 802.16, CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1×, CDMA2000 EV-DO, IS-2000, IS-95,IS-856, GSM, EDGE, and GERAN. Of course, other multiple access schemesand wireless protocols may be utilized.

The RANs 120 a-120 b are in communication with the core network 130 toprovide the EDs 110 a-110 c with various services such as voice, data,and other services. The RANs 120 a-120 b and/or the core network 130 maybe in direct or indirect communication with one or more other RANs (notshown), which may or may not be directly served by core network 130, andmay or may not employ the same radio access technology as RAN 120 a, RAN120 b or both. The core network 130 may also serve as a gateway accessbetween (i) the RANs 120 a-120 b or EDs 110 a-110 c or both, and (ii)other networks (such as the PSTN 140, the internet 150, and the othernetworks 160).

The EDs 110 a-110 c communicate with one another over one or moresidelink (SL) air interfaces 180 using wireless communication links e.g.radio frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR), etc. The SL airinterfaces 180 may utilize any suitable radio access technology, and maybe substantially similar to the air interfaces 190 over which the EDs110 a-110 c communication with one or more of the base stations 170a-170 c, or they may be substantially different. For example, thecommunication system 100 may implement one or more channel accessmethods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), time divisionmultiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), SpaceDivision Multiple Access (SDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), orsingle-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) in the SL air interfaces 180. In someembodiments, the SL air interfaces 180 may be, at least in part,implemented over unlicensed spectrum. In addition, the SL air interfaces180 may operate in time division duplex (TDD) and/or frequency divisionduplex (FDD) modes.

Some or all of the EDs 110 a-110 c may include functionality forcommunicating with different wireless networks over different wirelesslinks using different wireless technologies and/or protocols. Instead ofwireless communication (or in addition thereto), the EDs may communicatevia wired communication channels to a service provider or switch (notshown), and to the internet 150. PSTN 140 may include circuit switchedtelephone networks for providing plain old telephone service (POTS).Internet 150 may include a network of computers and subnets (intranets)or both, and incorporate protocols, such as internet protocol (IP),transmission control protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP).EDs 110 a-110 c may be multimode devices capable of operation accordingto multiple radio access technologies, and incorporate multipletransceivers necessary to support multiple radio access technologies.

The base stations 170 a-170 b, the EDs 110 a-110 c, and the sensingagent 122 can perform or aid in sensing by transmitting and/or receivingsensing signals (not shown). The sensing signals can be used todetermine properties of the communication system 100 and its surroundingenvironment. For exampling, sensing signals could be used to determinethe location and/or velocity of the EDs 110 a-110 c. Similar to the airinterfaces 190 and/or the SL air interfaces 180, the sensing signalscould utilize any suitable radio access technology. In some embodiments,sensing signals occupy the millimeter band (also referred to as theextremely high frequency band). Possible advantages of millimeter bandinclude a relatively large amount of bandwidth available for sensing anda stronger reflection of the sensing signals from objects, as somematerials reflect millimeter waves more strongly than other radio bands.

FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C illustrate example devices that may implement themethods and teachings according to this disclosure. In particular, FIG.2A illustrates an example ED 110, FIG. 2B illustrates an example basestation 170, and FIG. 2C illustrates an example sensing agent 122. Thesecomponents could be used in the system 100 or in any other suitablesystem.

As shown in FIG. 2A, the ED 110 includes at least one processing unit200. The processing unit 200 implements various processing operations ofthe ED 110. For example, the processing unit 200 could perform signalcoding, bit scrambling, data processing, power control, input/outputprocessing, or any other functionality enabling the ED 110 to operate inthe communication system 100. The processing unit 200 may also beconfigured to implement some or all of the functionality and/orembodiments described in more detail herein. Each processing unit 200includes any suitable processing or computing device configured toperform one or more operations. Each processing unit 200 could, forexample, include a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signalprocessor, field programmable gate array, or application specificintegrated circuit.

The ED 110 also includes at least one transceiver 202. The transceiver202 is configured to modulate data or other content for transmission byat least one antenna or Network Interface Controller (NIC) 204. Thetransceiver 202 is also configured to demodulate data or other contentreceived by the at least one antenna 204. Each transceiver 202 includesany suitable structure for generating signals for wireless or wiredtransmission and/or processing signals received wirelessly or by wire.Each antenna 204 includes any suitable structure for transmitting and/orreceiving wireless or wired signals. One or multiple transceivers 202could be used in the ED 110. One or multiple antennas 204 could be usedin the ED 110. Although shown as a single functional unit, a transceiver202 could also be implemented using at least one transmitter and atleast one separate receiver.

The ED 110 further includes one or more input/output devices 206 orinterfaces (such as a wired interface to the internet 150). Theinput/output devices 206 permit interaction with a user or other devicesin the network. Each input/output device 206 includes any suitablestructure for providing information to or receiving information from auser, such as a speaker, microphone, keypad, keyboard, display, or touchscreen, including network interface communications.

In addition, the ED 110 includes at least one memory 208. The memory 208stores instructions and data used, generated, or collected by the ED110. For example, the memory 208 could store software instructions ormodules configured to implement some or all of the functionality and/orembodiments described elsewhere herein and that are executed by theprocessing unit(s) 200. Each memory 208 includes any suitable volatileand/or non-volatile storage and retrieval device(s). Any suitable typeof memory may be used, such as random access memory (RAM), read onlymemory (ROM), hard disk, optical disc, subscriber identity module (SIM)card, memory stick, secure digital (SD) memory card, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 2B, the base station 170 includes at least oneprocessing unit 250, at least one transmitter 252, at least one receiver254, one or more antennas 256, at least one memory 258, and one or moreinput/output devices or interfaces 266. A transceiver, not shown, may beused instead of the transmitter 252 and receiver 254. A scheduler 253may be coupled to the processing unit 250. The scheduler 253 may beincluded within or operated separately from the base station 170. Theprocessing unit 250 implements various processing operations of the basestation 170, such as signal coding, bit scrambling, data processing,power control, input/output processing, or any other functionality. Theprocessing unit 250 can also be configured to implement some or all ofthe functionality and/or embodiments described in more detail elsewhereherein. Each processing unit 250 includes any suitable processing orcomputing device configured to perform one or more operations. Eachprocessing unit 250 could, for example, include a microprocessor,microcontroller, digital signal processor, field programmable gatearray, or application specific integrated circuit.

Each transmitter 252 includes any suitable structure for generatingsignals for wireless or wired transmission to one or more EDs or otherdevices. Each receiver 254 includes any suitable structure forprocessing signals received wirelessly or by wire from one or more EDsor other devices. Although shown as separate components, at least onetransmitter 252 and at least one receiver 254 could be combined into atransceiver. Each antenna 256 includes any suitable structure fortransmitting and/or receiving wireless or wired signals. Although acommon antenna 256 is shown here as being coupled to both thetransmitter 252 and the receiver 254, one or more antennas 256 could becoupled to the transmitter(s) 252, and one or more separate antennas 256could be coupled to the receiver(s) 254. Each memory 258 includes anysuitable volatile and/or non-volatile storage and retrieval device(s)such as those described above in connection to the ED 110. The memory258 stores instructions and data used, generated, or collected by thebase station 170. For example, the memory 258 could store softwareinstructions or modules configured to implement some or all of thefunctionality and/or embodiments described elsewhere herein and that areexecuted by the processing unit(s) 250.

Each input/output device 266 permits interaction with a user or otherdevices in the network. Each input/output device 266 includes anysuitable structure for providing information to or receiving/providinginformation from a user, including network interface communications.

Additional details regarding the UEs 110 and the base stations 170 areknown to those of skill in the art. As such, these details are omittedhere for clarity.

As shown in FIG. 2C, the sensing agent 122 includes at least oneprocessing unit 220, at least one transmitter 222, at least one receiver224, one or more antennas 226, at least one memory 228, and one or moreinput/output devices or interfaces 230. A transceiver, not shown, may beused instead of the transmitter 222 and receiver 224. The processingunit 220 implements various processing operations of the sensing agent122, such as signal coding, bit scrambling, data processing, powercontrol, input/output processing, or any other functionality. Theprocessing unit 220 can also be configured to implement some or all ofthe functionality and/or embodiments described in more detail elsewhereherein. Each processing unit 220 includes any suitable processing orcomputing device configured to perform one or more operations. Eachprocessing unit 220 could, for example, include a microprocessor,microcontroller, digital signal processor, field programmable gatearray, or application specific integrated circuit.

Each transmitter 222 includes any suitable structure for generatingsensing signals for wireless transmission. Each receiver 224 includesany suitable structure for processing sensing signals receivedwirelessly. Although shown as separate components, at least onetransmitter 222 and at least one receiver 224 could be combined into atransceiver. In some embodiments, a sensing agent may only transmit orreceive sensing signals. This may be the case in bistatic sensing, forexample. In some embodiments, a sensing agent only transmits sensingsignals, and the reflections of these sensing signals could be receivedby other sensing nodes. In some embodiments, a sensing agent receivesreflections of sensing signals, but does not transmit sensing signals.Therefore, some sensing agents might only include one of a transmitterand a receiver. As such, for the sensing agent 122, the at least onetransmitter 222 or the at least one receiver 224 could be optional.

Each antenna 226 includes any suitable structure for transmitting and/orreceiving wired or wireless signals. Although a common antenna 226 isshown here as being coupled to both the transmitter 222 and the receiver224, one or more antennas 226 could be coupled to the transmitter(s)222, and one or more separate antennas 226 could be coupled to thereceiver(s) 224. Each memory 228 includes any suitable volatile and/ornon-volatile storage and retrieval device(s) such as those describedabove in connection to the ED 110. The memory 228 stores instructionsand data used, generated, or collected by the sensing agent 122. Forexample, the memory 228 could store software instructions or modulesconfigured to implement some or all of the functionality and/orembodiments described elsewhere herein and that are executed by theprocessing unit(s) 220. Each input/output device 230 permits interactionwith a user or other devices in the network.

FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of an air interface manager 300for configuring a software-configurable air interface 190. Air interfacemanager 300 may be, for example, a module comprising a number ofcomponents or building blocks that define the parameters of the airinterface 190 and collectively specify how a transmission is to be madeand/or received by the air interface 190. The air interface manager 300could also or instead define the parameters of sensing signals in thecommunication system 100.

The components of the air interface manger 300 include at least one of awaveform component 305, a frame structure component 310, a multipleaccess scheme component 315, a protocol component 320, and a coding andmodulation component 325.

The waveform component 305 may specify a shape and form of a signalbeing transmitted. Waveform options may include orthogonal multipleaccess waveforms and non-orthogonal multiple access waveforms.Non-limiting examples of such waveform options include Single-Carrier(SC), Ultra Wideband (UWB), Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW),Linear Frequency Modulated (LFM), Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM), Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access(SC-FDMA), Filtered OFDM (f-OFDM), Time windowing OFDM, Filter BankMulticarrier (FBMC), Universal Filtered Multicarrier (UFMC), GeneralizedFrequency Division Multiplexing (GFDM), Wavelet Packet Modulation (WPM),Faster Than Nyquist (FTN) Waveform, and low Peak to Average Power RatioWaveform (low PAPR WF). In some embodiments, a combination of waveformoptions is possible. A LFM-OFDM waveform is a non-limiting example ofsuch a combination.

The frame structure component 310 may specify a configuration of a frameor group of frames. The frame structure component 310 may indicate oneor more of a time, frequency, pilot signature, code, or other parameterof the frame or group of frames.

Non-limiting examples of frame structure options include: the number ofsymbols in the time slot, the number of time slots in the frame and theduration of each time slot (sometimes known as a transmission timeinterval, TTI, or a transmission time unit, TTU). The frame structurecomponent may also specify whether the time slot is a configurablemulti-level TTI, a fixed TTI, or a configurable single-level TTI. Theframe structure component may further specify a co-existence mechanismfor different frame structure configurations.

For some waveforms, such as certain OFDM-based waveforms, the framestructure component may also specify one or more associated waveformparameters, such as sub-carrier spacing width, symbol duration, cyclicprefix (CP) length, channel bandwidth, guard bands/subcarriers, andsampling size and frequency.

Additionally, the frame structure component 310 may further specifywhether the frame structure is used in a time-division duplexcommunication or a frequency-division duplex communication.

Additionally, the frame structure component 310 may further specify thetransmission state and/or direction for each symbol in a frame. Forexample, each symbol may independently be configured as a downlinksymbol, an uplink symbol, a flexible symbol or a sensing symbol. Asensing signal may be transmitted or received in a sensing symbol. Anexample is shown in FIG. 3B, which illustrates a transmission frame 350including uplink (U), sensing (S) and downlink (D) symbols. Note thatthe sensing symbols can be configured to have a different numerologythan the uplink and/or downlink symbols. For example, the sensingsymbols can be configured to have a shorter length than theuplink/downlink symbols. This is shown in FIG. 3C, which illustrates atransmission frame 360 including uplink (U), sensing (S) and downlink(D) symbols. The sensing symbols in the transmission frame 360 areconfigured to have a shorter length than the sensing symbols in thetransmission frame 350.

Together, the specifications of the waveform component and the framestructure component are sometimes known as the “numerology.” Thus, theair interface 190 may include a numerology component 330 defining anumber of air interface configuration parameters, such as thesub-carrier spacing, CP length, symbol length, slot length, and symbolsper slot.

These numerologies, also known as subcarrier spacing configurations, maybe scalable in the sense that subcarrier spacings of differentnumerologies are multiples of each other, and time slot lengths ofdifferent numerologies are also multiples of each other. Such a scalabledesign across multiple numerologies provides implementation benefits,for example scalable total OFDM symbol duration in a time divisionduplex (TDD) context.

Frames can be configured using one or a combination of scalablenumerologies. For example, a numerology with 60 kHz subcarrier spacinghas a relatively short OFDM symbol duration (because OFDM symbolduration varies inversely with subcarrier spacing), which makes the 60kHz numerology particularly suitable for ultra-low latencycommunications, such as Vehicle-to-Any (V2X) communications. A furtherexample of a numerology with a relatively short OFDM symbol durationsuitable for low latency communications is a numerology with 30 kHzsubcarrier spacing. A numerology with 15 kHz subcarrier spacing maybecompatible with LTE or serve as a default numerology for initial accessof a device to a network. This 15 kHz numerology may also be suitablefor broadband services. A numerology with 7.5 kHz spacing, which has arelatively long OFDM symbol duration, may be particularly useful forcoverage enhancement and broadcasting. Additional uses for thesenumerologies will be or become apparent to persons of ordinary skill inthe art. Of the four numerologies listed, those with 30 kHz and 60 kHzsubcarrier spacings are more robust to Doppler spreading (fast movingconditions), because of the wider subcarrier spacing. It is furthercontemplated that different numerologies may use different values forother physical layer parameters, such as the same subcarrier spacing anddifferent cyclic prefix lengths. In addition, subcarrier spacing maydepend on the operational frequency band. For example, the subcarrierspacing in millimeter wave frequencies may be higher than in lowerfrequencies.

It is further contemplated that other subcarrier spacings may be used,such as higher or lower subcarrier spacings. For example, othersubcarrier spacings varying by a factor of 2^(n) include 120 kHz and3.75 kHz.

In other examples, a more limited scalability may be implemented, inwhich two or more numerologies all have subcarrier spacings that areinteger multiples of the smallest subcarrier spacing, withoutnecessarily being related by a factor of 2^(n). Examples include 15 kHz,30 kHz, 45 kHz, 60 kHz subcarrier spacings.

In still other examples, non-scalable subcarrier spacings may be used,which are not all integer multiples of the smallest subcarrier spacing,such as 15 kHz, 20 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz.

OFDM-based signals can be employed to transmit a signal in whichmultiple numerologies coexist simultaneously. More specifically,multiple sub-band OFDM signals can be generated in parallel, each withina different sub-band, and each sub-band having a different subcarrierspacing (and more generally with a different numerology). The multiplesub-band signals are combined into a single signal for transmission, forexample for downlink transmissions. Alternatively, the multiple sub-bandsignals may be transmitted from separate transmitters, for example foruplink transmissions from multiple electronic devices (EDs), which maybe user equipments (UEs).

The use of different numerologies can allow the air interface 190 tosupport coexistence of a diverse set of use cases having a wide rangequality of service (QoS) requirements, such as different levels oflatency or reliability tolerance, as well as different bandwidth orsignaling overhead requirements. In one example, the base station cansignal to the ED an index representing a selected numerology, or asingle parameter (e.g., subcarrier spacing) of the selected numerology.Based on this signaling, the ED may determine the parameters of theselected numerology from other information, such as a look-up table ofcandidate numerologies stored in memory.

Continuing with the components of the air interface 190, the multipleaccess scheme component 315 may specify how access to a channel isgranted for one or more EDs. Non-limiting examples of multiple accesstechnique options include technologies defining how EDs share a commonphysical channel, such as: Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA),Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Code Division Multiple Access(CDMA), Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA), Single Carrier FrequencyDivision Multiple Access (SC-FDMA), Low Density Signature MulticarrierCode Division Multiple Access (LDS-MC-CDMA), Non-Orthogonal MultipleAccess (NOMA), Pattern Division Multiple Access (PDMA), LatticePartition Multiple Access (LPMA), Resource Spread Multiple Access(RSMA), and Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA). Furthermore, themultiple access technique options may include scheduled access,non-scheduled access, also known as grant-free access, non-orthogonalmultiple access, orthogonal multiple access, e.g., via a dedicatedchannel resource (i.e., no sharing between multiple EDs),contention-based shared channel resource, non-contention-based sharedchannel resource, and cognitive radio-based access.

The protocol component 320 may specify how a transmission and/or are-transmission are to be made. Non-limiting examples of transmissionand/or re-transmission mechanism options include those that specify ascheduled data pipe size and a signaling mechanism for transmissionand/or re-transmission.

The coding and modulation component 325 may specify how informationbeing transmitted may be encoded/decoded and modulated/demodulated fortransmission/reception purposes. Coding may refer to methods of errordetection and forward error correction. Non-limiting examples of codingoptions include turbo trellis codes, turbo product codes, fountaincodes, low-density parity check codes, and polar codes. Modulation mayrefer, simply, to Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) specified by acomplex constellation (including, for example, the modulation techniqueand order, e.g. 16QAM, 64QAM, etc.), or more specifically to varioustypes of advanced modulation methods such as hierarchical modulation,multi-dimensional modulation and low Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR)modulation.

Because an air interface comprises a plurality of components or buildingblocks, and each component may have a plurality of candidatetechnologies (also referred to herein as air interface capabilityoptions), the air interface manager 300 may configure and store a largenumber of different air interface profiles. Each air interface profiledefines a respective set of air interface capability options.

For example, in each air interface profile defining a respective set ofair interface capability options, an air interface capability option isselected for each of the component building blocks of the air interface.Each of the different air interface profiles may be targeted to meet adifferent set of transmission requirements, including transmissioncontent, transmit condition, and receive condition.

According to the transmission requirements of a pair of communicatingtransmitting-receiving devices, one of the different air interfaceprofiles that best meet the transmission requirements may be selectedfrom the air interface manager 300 and used for communications betweenthe pair of communicating transmitting-receiving devices.

In further embodiments, the air interface manager 300 may modify orupdate its components, profiles, or capability options. For example, theair interface manager 300 may replace the waveform and frame structurecomponents 305, 310, with a single numerology component 330. Conversely,the air interface manager 300 may separate the coding and modulationcomponent 325 into an individual coding component and an individualmodulation component. Furthermore, the air interface manager 300 isconfigurable such that new soft air interface configuration componentsdeveloped in the future should be able to be utilized.

The air interface manager 300 may also update certain components tomodify the capability options of any given component. For example, theair interface manager 300 may update the modulation and coding component325 to include higher-order modulation schemes.

By updating the stored components, profiles, and candidate options, theair interface manager 300 can flexibly adapt to better accommodatediverse wireless traffic types and services. Modifying or updatingcomponents, profiles, and candidate options may allow the air interfacemanager 300 to provide suitable air interface profiles for traffic typesor services other than those already contemplated for ultra-reliable lowlatency communications (URLLC), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), andmassive machine-type communications (mMTC).

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example communication system 400implementing sensing. The communication system 400 includes multipletransmission and receive points (TRPs) 402, 404, 406, and multiple UEs410, 412, 414, 416, 418, 420. The UEs 410, 412 are illustrated asvehicles and the UEs 414, 416, 418, 420 are illustrated as cell phones,however this is only an example.

The TRP 402 is a base station that transmits a downlink (DL) signal 430to the UE 416. The DL signal 430 is an example of a communication signalcarrying data. The TRP 402 also transmits a sensing signal 464 in thedirection of the UEs 418, 420. Therefore, the TRP 402 is involved insensing and is considered to be a sensing node.

The TRP 404 is a base station that receives an uplink (UL) signal 440from the UE 414, and transmits a sensing signal 460 in the direction ofthe UE 410. The UL signal 440 is an example of a communication signalcarrying data. Since the TRP 404 is involved in sensing, this TRP isconsidered to be a sensing node as well as a communication node.

The TRP 406 transmits a sensing signal 466 in the direction of the UE420, and therefore this TRP is considered to be a sensing node. The TRP406 may or may not transmit or receive communication signals in thecommunications system 400. In some embodiments, the TRP 406 could bereplaced with a sensing agent (SA) that is dedicated to sensing, anddoes not transmit or receive any communication signals in thecommunication system 400.

The UEs 410, 412, 414, 416, 418, 420 are all capable of transmitting andreceiving communication signals on UL, DL and/or SL. For example, theUEs 418, 420 are communicating with each other via SL signals 450. Atleast some of the UEs 410, 412, 414, 416, 418, 420 are also sensingnodes in the communication system 400. By way of example, the UE 412transmits a sensing signal 462 in the direction of the UE 410, andtherefore the UE 412 is considered to be a sensing node.

The sensing nodes in the communication system 400 could implementmonostatic and/or bistatic sensing. In the case of monostatic sensing,the transmitter of a sensing signal also receives a reflection of thesensing signal to determine the properties of one or more objects. Inone example, the TRP 404 could receive a reflection of the sensingsignal 460 from the UE 410 and potentially determine properties of theUE 410 based on the reflection of the sensing signal. In anotherexample, the UE 412 could receive a reflection of the sensing signal 462and potentially determine properties of the UE 410.

In the case of bistatic sensing, the receiver of a reflected sensingsignal is different from the transmitter of the sensing signal. Any orall of the UEs 410, 412, 414, 416, 418, 420 could be involved in sensingby receiving reflections of the sensing signals 460, 462, 464, 466.Similarly, any or all of the TRPs 402, 404, 406 could receivereflections of the sensing signals 460, 462, 464, 466.

In one example, the sensing signal 464 could be reflected off of the UE420 and be received by the TRP 406. It should be noted that a sensingsignal might not physically reflect off of a UE, but could insteadreflect off an object that is associated with the UE. For example, thesensing signal 464 could reflect off of a user or vehicle that iscarrying the UE 420. The TRP 406 could determine certain properties ofthe UE 420 based on a reflection of the sensing signal 464, includingthe range, location, shape, speed and/or velocity of the UE 420, forexample. In some implementations, the TRP 406 transmits informationpertaining to the reflection of the sensing signal 464 to the TRP 402,and/or to any other network entity. The information pertaining to thereflection of the sensing signal 464 could include the time that thereflection was received, the time-of-flight of the sensing signal (forexample, if the TRP 406 knows when the sensing signal was transmitted),the carrier frequency of the reflected sensing signal, the angle ofarrival of the reflected sensing signal, and/or the Doppler shift of thesensing signal (for example, if the TRP 406 knows the original carrierfrequency of the sensing signal). Other types of information pertainingto the reflection of a sensing signal are also contemplated.

The TRP 402 could determine properties of the UE 420 based on thereceived information pertaining to the reflection of the sensing signal464. If the TRP 406 has determined certain properties of the UE 420based on the reflection of the sensing signal 464, such as the locationof the UE 420, then the information pertaining to the reflection of thesensing signal 464 could also or instead include these properties.

In another example, the sensing signal 462 could be reflected off of theUE 410 and be received by the TRP 404. Similar to the example providedabove, the TRP 404 could determine properties of the UE 410 based on thereflection of the sensing signal, and/or transmit information pertainingto the reflection of the sensing signal to another network entity, suchas the UEs 410, 412.

In a further example, the sensing signal 466 could be reflected off ofthe UE 420 and be received by the UE 418. The UE 418 could determineproperties of the UE 420 based on the reflection of the sensing signal,and/or transmit information pertaining to the reflection of the sensingsignal to another network entity, such as the UE 420 and/or the TRPs402, 406.

The sensing signals 460, 462, 464, 466 are transmitted along particulardirections, and in general, a sensing node could transmit multiplesensing signals in multiple different directions. In someimplementations, sensing signals are intended to sense the environmentover a given area, and beam sweeping is one method to achieve this. Beamsweeping can be performed using analog beamforming to form a beam alonga desired direction using phase shifters, for example. Digitalbeamforming and hybrid beamforming are also possible. During beamsweeping, a sensing node could transmit multiple sensing signalsaccording to a beam sweeping pattern, where each sensing signal isbeamformed in a particular direction.

The UEs 410, 412, 414, 416, 418, 420 are examples of objects in thecommunication system 400, any or all of which could be detected andmeasured using sensing signals. However, other types of objects couldalso be detected and measured using sensing signals. Although notillustrated in FIG. 4, the environment surrounding the communicationsystem 400 could include one or more scattering objects that reflectsensing signals and potentially obstruct communication signals. Forexample, trees and/or buildings could at least partially block the pathfrom the TRP 402 to the UE 420, and potentially impede communicationsbetween the TRP 402 and the UE 420. The properties of these trees and/orbuildings could be determined based on a reflection of the sensingsignal 464, for example.

In some embodiments, communication signals are configured based on thedetermined properties of one or more objects. The configuration of acommunication signal could include, but is not limited to, theconfiguration of a numerology, waveform, frame structure, multipleaccess scheme, protocol, beamforming direction, coding scheme and/ormodulation scheme. Any or all of the communication signals 430, 440, 450could be configured based on the properties of the UEs 414, 416, 418,420. In one example, the location and velocity of the UE 416 could beused to help determine a suitable configuration for the DL signal 430.The properties of any scattering objects between the UE 416 and the TRP402 could also be used to help determine a suitable configuration forthe DL signal 430. Beamforming could be used to direct the DL signal 430towards the UE 416 and to avoid any scattering objects. In anotherexample, the location and velocity of the UE 414 could be used to helpdetermine a suitable configuration for the UL signal 440. The propertiesof any scattering objects between the UE 414 and the TRP 404 could alsobe used to help determine a suitable configuration for the UL signal440. Beamforming could be used to direct the UL signal 440 towards theTRP 404 and to avoid any scattering objects. In a further example, thelocation and velocity of the UEs 418, 420 could be used to helpdetermine a suitable configuration for the SL signals 450. Theproperties of any scattering objects between the UEs 418, 420 could alsobe used to help determine a suitable configuration for the SL signals450. Beamforming could be used to direct the SL signals 450 to either orboth of the UEs 418, 420 and to avoid any scattering objects.

The properties of the UEs 410, 412, 414, 416, 418, 420 could also orinstead be used for purposes other than communications. For example, thelocation and velocity of the UEs 410, 412 could be used for the purposeof autonomous driving.

The transmission of sensing signals 460, 462, 464, 466 and communicationsignals 430, 440, 450 could potentially result in interference in thecommunication system 400, which can be detrimental to both communicationand sensing operations. Some aspects of the present disclosure relate tosensing signal configurations that enable the coexistence of sensingsignals and communication signals in a communication network. Suchcoexistence can be achieved using sensing signal configurations that canat least partially avoid interference with communication signals and/orother sensing signals.

In the sensing period, each sensing agent sends a sensing referencesignal (SeRS) which can be in-band or out-of-band with anycommunications signals that may be occurring. A sensing cycle, i.e. theperiod of time in which sensing is performed at the sensing agent, canbe included in the uplink slots (for time divisional duplex (TDD)) or inuplink band (for frequency divisional duplex (FDD)) of an associated TRPto make sure the corresponding TRP is not transmitting at the same time.During the sensing cycle, knowing the SeRS sent by the sensing agent,each TRP can estimate sensing information through common methods inradar estimation. As SeRS potentially interferes with uplinktransmissions, there are different ways of dealing with suchinterference.

One way to deal with interference involves joint radar estimation anddata decoding. Depending on receiver capability at the TRP, the TRP maybe able to jointly decode an uplink transmission while estimating thesensing parameters. This can be done, for example, by utilizing maximumlikelihood estimation (MLE) or a simplification of MLE. Estimating thesensing parameters can also be performed using successive interferencecancellation (SIC), e.g. the TRP can decode the uplink transmissionassuming the sensing signal as interference and then remove the uplinktransmission from the received signal and perform sensing detection. Insome embodiments, these steps can be done in reverse order, i.e. the TRPcan first estimate the sensing parameters in the presence of uplinkinterference and then, after removing the sensing signal, the TRP candecode the uplink transmission.

Another way to deal with interference involves interference suppressionby utilizing receiver beamforming. In the case where the receiver hasmultiple antennas and one or more uplink transmission and one or moreSeRS are received from different directions, receiver beamforming can beused to separate the one or more uplink transmission and the one or moresensing signal.

A further way to deal with interference involves scheduling and powercontrol for uplink users to make sure the interference is minimized andmanageable.

Sensing signal configurations can be target-specific and/or sensingnode-specific. Target-specific means that the sensing signal isconfigured for a particular target. These targets could include UEs andscattering objects, for example. In some implementations,target-specific sensing signals improve the sensing performance forparticular targets. Target-specific parameters could be obtained by asensing node through measurement, training, and/or based on some desiredperformance indicator. This desired performance indicator could include,but is not limited to, target classification results (for example,whether the target is low-mobility or high-mobility), and desiredsensing quality.

Sensing-node specific means that the sensing signal is configured for aparticular sensing node. In some implementations, sensing node-specificsensing signals improve the sensing performance for particular sensingnodes. For example, a sensing node-specific sensing signal configurationcan be based on the properties and requirements of the sensing node thatwill transmit and/or receive the sensing signal. Possible benefits ofimplementing target-specific and/or sensing node-specific sensing signalconfigurations include the flexibility to adjust the configuration of asensing signal based on a desired sensing quality, and/or to reduceinterference between sensing signals from different sensing nodes.Target-specific and/or sensing node-specific configurations can beapplied to both in-band sensing and out-of-band sensing.

Some sensing node-specific sensing signal configurations are based on,and possibly include, unique identifiers that are specific to thetransmitter of the sensing signal. The unique identifiers could allowthe transmitter of a sensing signal to be determined by other networkentities that receive the sensing signal. For example, in someembodiments, any or all sensing nodes in a network are assigned arespective sensing node identifier (ID). The sensing node ID is anexample of a unique identifier that is specific to the transmitter of asensing signal. Sensing node IDs could be the same as, or at least beassociated with, other network IDs such as cell IDs and UE IDs.Alternatively, sensing node IDs could be configured independently. Insome implementations, the sensing node ID is at least partiallyconfigured and/or assigned by the network, and could be communicated toa sensing node via higher-layer signaling, such as radio resourcecontrol (RRC) signaling or medium access control (MAC) control element(CE) signaling, for example. In some implementations, a sensing nodedetermines its sensing node ID based on another network ID assigned tothe sensing node. The sensing node could also, or instead, determine thesensing node IDs of other sensing nodes in the network based on theirassigned network IDs. Sensing signal configurations for a particularsensing node can be based on, or mapped to, the sensing node ID that isassociated with that sensing node.

Parameters that can be included in a sensing signal configuration willnow be discussed in detail. However, these parameters are provided byway of example only, and are not intended to be limiting. In general, asensing signal configuration can include any set of parameters.

In some embodiments, a sensing signal configuration includes a waveformconfiguration. Depending on the type of waveform used for a sensingsignal, several possible parameters may be set in order to improve theperformance of the sensing signal in a communication network. Forexample, a numerology for the sensing signal configuration may be setbased on the type of waveform that is configured. Improving theperformance of a sensing signal could include, but is not limited to,improving the range resolution and velocity resolution of the sensingsignal, and reducing interference with communication signals and/orother sensing signals.

Using a waveform that is compatible with both communications and sensingoperations could improve the performance of both operations, and reducecomplexity for some sensing nodes. For example, the same receivers couldbe used for receiving sensing signals and for receiving communicationsignals. In addition, using a waveform that is compatible with bothcommunications and sensing operations enables joint detection and/orprocessing of sensing and communication signals to improve the detectionof both. Sensing signals and communication signals could also use thesame frame structure and/or numerology (for example, subcarrier spacing,cyclic prefix (CP) length, etc.), which could also improve performanceand reduce complexity.

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveforms could beused for sensing signals, and can achieve suitable sensing performancein some implementations. Radar sensing using OFDM waveforms has beeninvestigated in the following studies: Braun, M., Sturm, C., Jondral, F.K. “Maximum likelihood speed and distance estimation for OFDM radar”.Proc. 2010 IEEE Radar Conf., Washington, D.C., May 2010, pp. 256-261;Braun, M., Sturm, C., Niethammer, A., Jondral, F. “Parameterization ofjoint OFDM-based radar and communication systems for vehicularApplications”. Proc. 20th IEEE Int. Symp. Personal, Indoor, Mobile RadioCommunications, Tokyo, Japan, September 2009, pp. 3020-3024; Donnet, B.J., Longstaff, I. D. “Combining MIMO radar with OFDM communications”.Proc. Third European Radar Conf., Manchester U.K., September 2006, pp.37-40; Yang Yang and R. S. Blum, “MIMO radar waveform design based onmutual information and minimum mean-square error estimation”, Aerospaceand Electronic Systems, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 43, no. 1, pp.330-343, January 2007; and C. Sturm and W. Wiesbeck, “Waveform Designand Signal Processing Aspects for Fusion of Wireless Communications andRadar Sensing”, Proceedings of the IEEE, Volume: 99, Issue: 7, July2011, pp. 1236-1259.

OFDM may be a suitable choice of waveform for in-band sensing and/orout-of-band sensing. In some embodiments, OFDM waveforms are used forcommunication signals and for sensing signals to allow for the jointdetection and processing of sensing signals and communication signals.The numerologies of the OFDM waveforms for the communication signals andsensing signals could be the same or different.

In some embodiments, the numerology of an OFDM waveform could beselected to improve sensing performance and reduce interference betweendifferent sensing signals. Considering a sensing signal configurationwith a cyclic prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM) waveform as an example, subcarrierspacing, CP length/overhead, and sensing slot length (for example, thenumber of symbols included in each sensing cycle as well as theconfiguration of sensing symbols in the sensing cycle, e.g. contiguoussymbols or distributed symbols) are parameters that may be set topossibly improve the performance of the sensing signal.

It should be noted that the present disclosure is not limited to anyparticular types or configurations of waveforms for sensing signals orcommunication signals. For example, a waveform configuration for asensing signal could be single-carrier (where spreading sequences couldbe used for interference mitigation), multi-carrier, ultra-wide band, orfrequency modulated continuous wave. In some embodiments, a waveformconfiguration can be target-specific and/or sensing node-specific.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating another example communication system500 implementing sensing. The communication system 500 includes multipletransmission and receive points (TRPs) 502, 504, 506, multiple dedicatedsensing agents (SAs) 510, 512, 514 and multiple UEs 520, 522, 524, whichare illustrated as vehicles. It is to be understood however that this isonly an example and UEs may be other types of devices such as cellphones and the like.

In FIG. 5, SA1 510 transmits a signal 530 that reflects off of UE 520.TRP1 502 is shown receiving a reflection 532 of the signal 530. TRP1 502can then perform sensing parameter estimation for the surroundingenvironment based at least in part on reflection 532.

SA2 512 transmits a signal 540 that reflects off of UE 522. UE 520 isshown transmitting an uplink transmission 550. TRP2 504 is shownreceiving a reflection 542 of the signal 540 and the uplink transmission550 from UE 520. The reflection 542 and uplink transmission 550 areshown to be arriving at TRP2 504 from different directions. In thiscase, interference between uplink 550 and sensing signals 542 can besuppressed by receive beamforming, as described above. Other describedmethods could also be used if desired. TRP2 504 can then perform sensingparameter estimation for the surrounding environment based at least inpart on reflection 542 once it has been appropriately detected.

SA3 514 transmits a signal 560 that reflects off of UE 524. UE 524 isalso shown transmitting an uplink transmission 570. TRP3 506 is shownreceiving a reflection 562 of the signal 560 and the uplink transmission570 from UE 524. The reflection 562 and uplink transmission 570 areshown to be arriving at TRP3 506 from almost at the same direction. Inthis case, interference between uplink 570 and sensing signals 562cannot be suppressed effectively by receive beamforming and othertechniques, like joint detection and/or power control methods, can beutilized. TRP3 506 can then perform sensing parameter estimation for thesurrounding environment based at least in part on reflection 562 once ithas been appropriately detected.

Stand-Alone Dedicated Sensing Agent

Stand-alone sensing agents can be connected to one or more TRPs throughbackhaul. Examples of the connection are a wireless connection or fiberconnection and shown as dashed line 511 between SA1 510 and TRP1 502,dashed line 513 between SA2 512 and TRP2 504 and dashed line 515 betweenSA3 514 and TRP3 506. Stand-alone sensing agents can be low cost devicesas in their simplest form they do not have any data to transmit. In someembodiments, the sensing agent does not perform signal processingfunctions associated with data transmission. In addition, such simpleformed sensing agent may not be equipped with a receiver front-end.However, in some embodiments, if the sensing agent is equipped with areceiving front-end, then the sensing agent may be capable of performingpassive sensing. As a sensing agent is configured to transmit the SeRSin the UL slot of the corresponding TRP in a half-duplex arrangement,the sensing agent is not transmitting and available to perform passivesensing when the corresponding TRP is in a downlink portion of thetransmission resource. Therefore, the sensing agent can perform passivesensing of the environment by reception of the reflection of the DLsignal based on at least the two following scenarios.

A first scenario involves opportunistic sensing. Opportunistic sensingoccurs when the corresponding TRP is not performing active sensingoperation in the downlink and just performs data transmission. In thiscase, the sensing agent can perform passive sensing and sends thesensing information to the corresponding TRP, or any other TRPs that maybe within range, for further processing. This sensing information can berelated to the range, shape, and velocity of targets over the directionin which the downlink signal is transmitted on.

A second scenario involves scheduled sensing. Scheduled sensing isrelated to the case that the corresponding TRP performs active sensingsimultaneously as data transmission in downlink. In this case, a sensingbeam is swept by the corresponding TRP to cover an area of interest andthe sensing agent can detect and process the reflected signal andforward the sensing information to the corresponding TRP for furtherprocessing. This sensing information can be related to the range andvelocity of targets over the direction in which the sensing signal istransmitted on. The sensing agent can be instructed by the correspondingTRP to perform the passive sensing by, for example, sensing a“passive_sensing_request” through X2/Xn signalling.

When there are multiple sensing agents associated with a single TRP,enhanced sensing in the downlink time slot can occur by having multiplecopies of the sensing signal received by SAs after reflection. Thisprovides sensing diversity by having multiple observations of the sameenvironment. Also, a sensing agent can perform passive sensing overmultiple sensing signals sent by multiple neighboring TRPs. As thesensing signals generated by different TRPs can have differentseeds/patterns/sequences, the sensing agent can distinguish them duringreception. All the received information can be transmitted to thecorresponding TRP and the TRP can forward the information to neighboringTRPs, if desired.

In order to have efficient sensing transmission/reception, sensingagents can be assigned different sensing IDs by the network. In a caseof stand-alone sensing agents, the sensing ID can be associated with aTRP identifier (ID) or it can be a separate ID. This helps sensingagents to associate the parameters of a sensing signal to the ID andhence, facilitates better sensing detection at the receiver nodes andbetter SeRS interference mitigation.

In some embodiments, using stand-alone dedicated sensing agents enablessensing in half duplex networks with low cost and high efficiency.

In some embodiments, using stand-alone dedicated sensing agents providesadditional information to the network to improve the communicationsperformance.

User Equipment as Sensing Agent

In some embodiments, a UE can perform the functions of a sensing agent.When the UE acts as a sensing agent, the active sensing (transmission ofSeRS) is performed as a result of a request by a serving TRP. In thiscase, the UE can be allocated a Sensing Node (SeN) ID, which is signaledusing L1 signalling or higher layer signaling, examples of which areradio resource control (RRC) signaling and media access control (MAC)control elements (CEs). It is also possible that the SeN ID is assignedor pre-configured to the UE through higher layer signaling, but anindication like “SeN_enable” is assigned by the network through L1signalling to indicate a request for active sensing. The request can beinitiated based upon the location of the UE or by some event (e.g.blockage of packets for some UEs in certain areas). The sensing UE canalso be chosen based on the mobility of the UE, for example, stationaryUEs are preferred for sensing purposes as the location information forthe sensing agent is more stable and not changing. In some embodiments,UEs as sensing agents can be chosen based on transmission and/orprocessing power. For example, cars when considered as UEs have morecapability in terms of power amplification and processing power thancell phones that typically have a particular battery limitation.Synchronization between UE and TRP clocks may be a criteria for UEselection as a sensing agent because tight synchronization is required(or at least the relative delays are to be known through receivinguplink packets for the same UE in the same location) for rangeestimation.

Once a UE is selected and assigned by the network for active sensing,some extra information can be signaled to the UE to indicate moredetails of the sensing. This may include some parameters of the sensingsignal including a beam sweeping pattern, resource allocation and SeRSsequence length and some indications (explicit and/or implicit) forsensing quality and some level of knowledge of the environment(including the target classification results based on previousmeasurements, etc.). This extra information signalling can be L1 orhigher layer signalling including RRC or MAC CE. It is also possiblethat the UE performs uplink transmission and active sensing at the sametime by assigning two different beams for transmission and sensing whichcan be determined and signaled to the UE by the network.

Similar to stand-alone dedicated sensing agents, a UE used for sensingcan perform passive sensing of the surrounding environment by receptionof the reflection of a downlink signal from TRP. Selection of a UE as apassive sensing agent may also be dependent on the UE capability andpower availability. For example, for UEs with reasonably good processingpower and no battery constraint (such as cars) this would be feasible.The following are examples of passive sensing scenarios.

In opportunistic sensing, a corresponding TRP does not perform activesensing in downlink, but performs only data transmission. In this case,the UE as sensing agent performs passive sensing and sends sensinginformation to the corresponding TRP for further processing. The sensinginformation can be related to range, shape, and velocity of targets overa direction in which a downlink signal is transmitted by thecorresponding TRP. In some embodiments, the UE feedback is done using L1signalling. In some embodiments, the UE feedback is combined with otherfeedback signalling (e.g. channel quality indication (CQI) feedback) andcan be sent using a same signalling mechanism as the other feedbacksignaling. Opportunistic sensing can also be performed for sidelink (SL)transmission between UEs.

In scheduled sensing, the corresponding TRP performs active sensingsimultaneously with data transmission in downlink. In this case, asensing beam is swept by the corresponding TRP to cover an area ofinterest and the UE as sensing agent can detect and process thereflected signal as sensing information. The UE can forward the sensinginformation to the TRP for further processing. The sensing informationcan be related to range, shape, and velocity of targets over thedirection in which the sensing signal is transmitted by thecorresponding TRP. In some embodiments, the UE can be configured by thecorresponding TRP to perform the passive sensing by sensing a“passive_sensing_request” through L1 signalling or higher layersignalling including RRC or MAC CE. In some embodiments, the UE feedbackcan be provided to the corresponding TRP using L1 signalling. In someembodiments, the UE feedback is combined with other feedback signalling(e.g. CQI feedback) and is sent using the same signalling mechanism asthe other feedback signalling. Scheduled sensing can also be performedfor SL transmission in which the active sensing is performed by anotherUE. In this case, a “passive_sensing_request” can be sent by the UEperforming the active sensing or by the network.

In some embodiments, utilizing UEs as sensing agents enables sensing inhalf duplex networks with low cost and high efficiency.

In some embodiments, utilizing UEs as sensing agents provides additionalinformation to the network to improve the communications performance

Transmit Receive Point as Sensing Agent

In some embodiments, TRPs can be considered sensing agents. As a TRPcannot perform active sensing (transmitting the sensing signal) andpassive sensing (reception and processing of the sensing signal) at thesame time, one or more other TRP help in the sensing operation. As theprimary operation of the TRP is communications (data transmission andreception), the sensing operation should not interrupt or disrupt thecommunications. For TRPs that are operating in a half-duplex manner,when the TRP performs active sensing, the receiver is to be in uplinkmode (reception). Therefore, there must be coordination between one ormore TRP acting as transmitter and one or more other TRP acting asreceiver.

For illustration of the proposed scheme, one or more TRP responsible forthe sensing operation are designated as primary TRP(s) and one or moreTRP helping the primary TRP(s) with the sensing operation are designatedas the helper TRP(s) or simply helper(s). While helpers are generallydescribed to as being TRPs, it is possible that UEs could be helpers aswell. The helper(s) can be associated with the primary TRP(s), forexample they can be femto base stations, remote radio heads (RRH),relays or any other network nodes, or they can be independent TRPs. In amore general form, sensing scheduling can occur in the sense that thereare a set of TRPs {TRP_(i)}_(i=1) ^(s) and at each sensing cycle, asubset of TRPs act as primary TRP(s) and the rest of the set act ashelpers. In some embodiments, the subsets acting as primary TRP(s) andhelpers alternate from one sensing cycle to another. This provides anopportunity to sense the entire environment efficiently.

Without loss of generality, the primary TRP(s) perform active sensing,i.e. they send sensing signal (SeRS) and the helpers perform passivesensing, i.e. listen to the reflection of SeRS from targets and try toestimate the sensing parameters. In some embodiments, the primary TRPsand the helpers roles are reversed in that the primary TRP(s) performpassive sensing and the helpers perform active sensing. In such a case,the sensing command (e.g. “passive_sense_enable”) and configurationparameters of sensing signal(s) should be conveyed to the helpers tosimplify reception. These configuration parameters may include, but arenot limited to: SeN IDs; SeRS length and sequences; resource mappingpattern; and beam sweeping pattern. The signalling of the sensingcommand and configuration parameters can be performed through X2/Xnsignalling. In some embodiments, when the sensing is performed in apre-configured manner and primary/helper configuration of the TRPs ispre-defined, some or all of this information can be obtained by thehelpers and therefore, no or little signalling is required. In thiscase, the pre-configuration information can be sent through higher layersignalling at the beginning of the sensing process with primary TRP(s)and helper(s).

In a half-duplex scenario, when sensing is performed, no downlinktransmission should be performed from the helpers over the resources inwhich SeRS signals are transmitted. If the sensing is performed in apre-configured manner and primary/helper configuration of the TRPs ispre-defined, the helper(s) can be provisioned such that no downlinktransmission is scheduled on these resources. However, if the sensing isperformed on an “on demand” basis i.e. only when requested, and thedownlink transmission is already scheduled, the TRP serving a group ofUEs can send notification to UEs scheduled during a given resource (orbroadcast to all the UEs) through L1 signalling to let the UEs knowabout the scheduling change on those resources.

The decision on whether or not to schedule uplink transmission whenpassive sensing is performed depends in part on the receiver capabilityof the helper(s). For example, if receiver capability is high, i.e. thehelper can jointly detect the sensing signal as well as uplink decoding,the primary TPR can schedule uplink transmission. However, some extrasignalling might be required to ensure the decoding performance for bothuplink transmission and sensing. For example, some indication regardingpower control, transmission rank, and/or modulation and coding scheme(MCS) can be sent to the scheduled/configured UEs on these resources.This extra signalling can be through L1 signalling or through higherlayer signalling including RRC or MAC CE.

In some embodiments, using TRPs as sensing agents, including thecombination of primary TRP(s) and helper TRP(s) provides more sensingcoverage by performing sensing over multiple TRPs.

In some embodiments, using TRPs as sensing agents, including thecombination of primary TRP(s) and helper TRP(s) provides more sensingdiversity and improves quality of the sensing.

A particular issue that arises due to the use of sensing agents (in theform of stand-alone dedicated sensing agents, TRPs and/or UEs) isinterference generated by the sensing signals. Sensing signals can bein-band or out-of-band. For in-band sensing, sensing signals andcommunication signals are transmitted using the same set of physicalresources. For example, a network entity could transmit communicationsignals and sensing signals over the same frequency band simultaneouslyor at different times. For out-of-band sensing, sensing signals aretransmitted using a set of physical resources that is different from theset of physical resources used for communication signals. In someembodiments, the set of physical resources is dedicated to sensing. Ifthe sensing is performed out-of-band, interference between sensing andcommunications signals is reduced significantly. An example ofout-of-band sensing is sensing being performed in a millimeter wave bandand communications are performed in a sub-6 GHz band.

When sensing is performed in-band, different solutions for interferencemitigation can be considered, including one or more of the following.

Power control: because sensing is normally performed over a largebandwidth (to get a good ranging estimate), the power can be lowered tolimit interference caused to the neighboring TRPs and/or UEs.

Beamforming configuration: because the sensing is performed by beamsweeping, the sweeping region can be designed in such a way to minimizeinterference to uplink communication signals and transmission of otherTRPs (based on the information about the coverage area of theneighboring TRPs).

Sensing signal design: aspects of sensing signal design is described inapplicants co-pending application Applicant's reference 86311801US01.

Managing Inter-Sensing Signal Interference

If the sensing signals from neighboring sensing agents are transmittedover the same frequency band, this results in interference when observedat a sensing receiver. Because the sensing signal is a type of referencesignal, the structure of the signals transmitted from different nodescan impact on the inter-SeRS interference. For example, if the sensingsignals of the neighboring sensing agents are designed to be orthogonalto each other, inter-sensing signal interference can be mitigated. Insome embodiments, SeRS can be designed in a similar fashion to themanner of demodulated reference signal (DMRS) design in uplink withorthogonal or semi-orthogonal reference signal (RS) sequences and/ororthogonal or semi-orthogonal time/frequency resources. An aspect of thedesign process can also include having different SeRS ports forneighboring sensing agents (time/frequency scheduling of SeRS signals).Design of the SeRS may also pertain to power control and beamformingconfiguration as discussed above.

In some embodiments, the SeRS signals can be designed in advance andstored in a look up table (LUT) and TRPs are aware of the sensingsignals of their neighboring sensing agents so they can selectappropriate SeRS for different sensing agents. In other embodiments, thesensing signal parameters can be mapped to a sensing agent ID or asensing node (SeN) ID which can be globally known in the network throughinitial signalling.

Methods of Interference Mitigation to the UEs:

The interference caused by the sensing signals to the TRPs on the uplinktransmission of other TRPs can be handled relatively easily because TRPsnormally have more information about the configuration of the sensingsignals, their beam direction, etc., and TRPs have more processing powerfor signal detection and can cancel the interference caused by theneighboring sensing agents.

However, the sensing signal transmission by one sensing agent canpotentially cause interference to UEs in the following scenarios.

Scenario 1—UE Receiving DL Transmission in Another Cell

This scenario happens in the flexible TDD scenario when one TRP is inuplink mode while another TRP is in downlink mode. In this case, thesensing signal from one sensing agent can cause interference to the UEreceiving a downlink transmission in another cell. In some embodiments,this can be managed by the following:

-   -   1) Beam management of the sensing signal: since the TRPs may        know each other's UL/DL configuration, the TRPs can        pre-configure the beam sweeping patterns of their corresponding        SA(s) such that no interference is caused to UEs in the coverage        area of the other TRP.    -   2) Resource management of the sensing signal: In case multiple        resource parts (bandwidth, time slots . . . ) are available for        sensing, SA(s) can use the resource parts not used by the        neighboring TRPs for DL transmission, this requires that the        TRPs know the DL scheduling resources of the neighboring TRPs.    -   3) Power control: in the case where the sensing signal is sent        over the same resource as the DL transmission, the sensing        signal power can be controlled to mitigate interference caused        to the DL UE.    -   4) Predictive interference mitigation: because the TRP knows the        beam pattern of the neighboring SA(s), the TRP can signal the        neighboring TRP in case the beam pattern is harmful for the        upcoming DL transmission so that the TRP can halt the beam        sweeping or change the pattern.

Scenario 2—UE Receiving Device-to-Device (D2D) Transmission

If a D2D link is established by the TRP, any of the above describedtechniques can be used to manage the interference.

However, if the D2D link is established in a UE-centric fashion, a“sense-before-talk” technique can be used for interference management.In sense-before-talk, the UE can first sense the frequency band to seeif the UE detects the sensing signal. Then the UE can select thefrequency band, transmission bandwidth and beamforming to make sure thereceiver is not impacted by the sensing signal transmission. This ideacan be useful because in some embodiments of D2D, the transmitter andreceiver are relatively close together, so the signal power detected bythe transmitter is approximately the same as the one detected by thereceiver.

Interference management between SeRS signals sent by different nodes andminimizing the impact of sensing signals to communications signals andvice versa can be used to improve the performance of both sensing andcommunications in the system.

Examples of configuring and implementing sensing signals in a wirelesscommunication network will now be described with reference to FIGS. 6and 7.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart 600 describing a method for use in atelecommunication system. Step 610 involves a sensing agent receivingconfiguration information for configuring transmission of a sensingreference signal (SeRS) to be transmitted by the sensing agent during atransmission resource of a first transmit receive point (TRP). Step 620involves the sensing agent transmitting the SeRS based on theconfiguration information. Step 630 is an optional step that furtherinvolves the sensing agent performing passive sensing on a reflection ofa downlink transmission from the first TPR. This step may be performedis the sensing agent is configured to receive a reflected version of theSeRS. Step 640 is a further optional step to 630 that further involvesthe sensing agent notifying the first TRP of sensing informationresulting from the passive sensing on the reflection of the downlinktransmission from the TPR. Step 650 is an optional step that involvesthe sensing agent receiving configuration information for configuringwhen the sensing agent can perform passive sensing of a reflection fromtransmission by the first TRP or one or more other TRP. Step 660 is anoptional step that involves the sensing agent performing passive sensingof a reflection from the first TRP or the one or more other TRP. Step670 is an optional step that further involves the sensing agentnotifying at least one of the first TRP or the one or more other TRP ofsensing information resulting from performing passive sensing of thereflection by the SeRS transmitted by the first TRP or the one or moreother TRP.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart 700 describing a method for use in atelecommunication system. Step 710 involves a TRP transmittingconfiguration information for configuring transmission of a SeRS to betransmitted by a sensing agent during a transmission resource of theTRP. Step 720 involves the TRP detecting a reflection of the SeRStransmitted by the sensing agent based on the configuration information.Step 730 is an optional step that further involves the TRP performingsensing parameter estimation regarding a surrounding environment of theTRP based on the detected reflection. Step 740 is an optional step thatinvolves the TRP further performing interference suppression to suppressinterference between uplink transmissions and at least one of: the SeRSfrom the TRP and SeRS from other TRP or sensing agents. Performinginterference suppression may include at least one of: joint radarestimation and data decoding using maximum likelihood estimation orsuccessive interference cancellation; receiving beamforming to separateat least one reflected SeRS and uplink transmissions; and scheduling andpower control for uplink users to minimize interference.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart 800 describing a method for use in atelecommunication system. Step 810 involves a sensing agent receivingconfiguration information for configuring passive sensing of areflection of a SeRS by one or more TRP during a transmission resourceof the one or more TRP. Step 820 involves the sensing agent detectingthe reflected SeRS based on the configuration information.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart 900 describing a method for use in atelecommunication system. Step 910 involves a TRP transmitting a SeRSduring a transmission resource of the TRP. Step 920 involves the TRPreceiving sensing parameter estimation information from one or moresensing agents regarding a surrounding environment of the TRP.

While aspects of the description may pertain to half-duplex modeoperation, it should be understood that aspects of the above describedmethodologies can be applied to full duplex mode operation as well.

It should be appreciated that one or more steps of the embodimentmethods provided herein may be performed by corresponding units ormodules. For example, a signal may be transmitted by a transmitting unitor a transmitting module. A signal may be received by a receiving unitor a receiving module. A signal may be processed by a processing unit ora processing module. The respective units/modules may be hardware,software, or a combination thereof. For instance, one or more of theunits/modules may be an integrated circuit, such as field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs) or application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).It will be appreciated that where the modules are software, they may beretrieved by a processor, in whole or part as needed, individually ortogether for processing, in single or multiple instances as required,and that the modules themselves may include instructions for furtherdeployment and instantiation.

Although a combination of features is shown in the illustratedembodiments, not all of them need to be combined to realize the benefitsof various embodiments of this disclosure. In other words, a system ormethod designed according to an embodiment of this disclosure will notnecessarily include all of the features shown in any one of the Figuresor all of the portions schematically shown in the Figures. Moreover,selected features of one example embodiment may be combined withselected features of other example embodiments.

While this disclosure has been described with reference to illustrativeembodiments, this description is not intended to be construed in alimiting sense. Various modifications and combinations of theillustrative embodiments, as well as other embodiments of thedisclosure, will be apparent to persons skilled in the art uponreference to the description. It is therefore intended that the appendedclaims encompass any such modifications or embodiments.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for use in a telecommunication systemcomprising: transmitting, by a transmit receive point (TRP),configuration information for configuring transmission of a sensingreference signal (SeRS) to be transmitted by a sensing agent during atransmission resource of the TRP; and receiving, by the TRP, areflection of the SeRS from the sensing agent based on the configurationinformation.
 2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprises:detecting, by the TRP, the reflection of the SeRs; performing, by theTRP, sensing parameter estimation regarding a surrounding environment ofthe TRP based on the detected reflection.
 3. The method of claim 1, themethod further comprising: performing, by the TRP, interferencesuppression to suppress interference between uplink transmissions and atleast one of: the SeRS from the TRP; and SeRS from other TRP or sensingagents.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein performing interferencesuppression comprises at least one of: joint radar estimation and datadecoding using maximum likelihood estimation or successive interferencecancellation; receiving beamforming to separate at least one reflectedSeRS and uplink transmissions; and scheduling and power control foruplink users to minimize interference.
 5. The method of claim 3 furthercomprising transmitting configuration information for configuringsensing of the reflection of the SeRS transmitted by the TRP during thetransmission resource of the TRP.
 6. The method of claim 3 furthercomprising: receiving, by the TRP, sensing parameter estimationinformation from one or more sensing agents regarding a surroundingenvironment of the TRP.
 7. The method of claim 6 further comprising theTRP notifying neighboring TRPs of received sensing parameter estimationinformation from one or more sensing agents regarding the surroundingenvironment of the TRP.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein transmittingthe configuration information occurs in one or more of: L1 signalling;radio resource control (RRC) signaling; media access control (MAC)control elements (CEs); and X2/Xn signaling.
 9. The method of claim 6,wherein receiving sensing parameter estimation information occurs in oneor more of: L1 signalling; Radio resource control (RRC) signaling; mediaaccess control (MAC) control elements (CEs); and X2/Xn signaling.
 10. Atransmit receive point (TRP) comprising: at least one processor; and amemory storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed,cause the at least one processor to: transmit configuration informationfor configuring transmission of a sensing reference signal (SeRS) to betransmitted by a sensing agent during a transmission resource of theTRP; and receive a reflection of the SeRS from the sensing agent basedon the configuration information.
 11. The TRP of claim 10, wherein theprocessor-executable instructions when executed, cause the at least oneprocessor to: detect the reflection of the SeRs; and perform sensingparameter estimation regarding a surrounding environment of the TRPbased on the detected reflection.
 12. The TRP of claim 10, wherein theprocessor-executable instructions when executed, cause the at least oneprocessor to: perform interference suppression to suppress interferencebetween uplink transmissions and at least one of: the SeRS from the TRP;and SeRS from other TRP or sensing agents.
 13. The TRP of claim 12,wherein the processor-executable instructions when executed, cause theat least one processor to: perform interference suppression comprises atleast one of: joint radar estimation and data decoding using maximumlikelihood estimation or successive interference cancellation; receivingbeamforming to separate at least one reflected SeRS and uplinktransmissions; and scheduling and power control for uplink users tominimize interference.
 14. The TRP of claim 12, wherein theprocessor-executable instructions when executed, cause the at least oneprocessor to: transmit configuration information for configuring sensingof the reflection of the SeRS transmitted by the TRP during thetransmission resource of the TRP.
 15. The TRP of claim 12, wherein theprocessor-executable instructions when executed, cause the at least oneprocessor to receive sensing parameter estimation information from oneor more sensing agents regarding a surrounding environment of the TRP.16. The TRP of claim 15, wherein the processor-executable instructionswhen executed, cause the at least one processor to notify neighboringTRPs of received sensing parameter estimation information from one ormore sensing agents regarding the surrounding environment of the TRP.17. The TRP of claim 10, wherein the processor-executable instructionswhen executed, cause the at least one processor to transmit theconfiguration information occurs in one or more of: L1 signalling; radioresource control (RRC) signaling; media access control (MAC) controlelements (CEs); and X2/Xn signaling.
 18. The TRP of claim 10, whereinthe processor-executable instructions when executed, cause the at leastone processor to receive sensing parameter estimation information occursin one or more of: L1 signalling; Radio resource control (RRC)signaling; media access control (MAC) control elements (CEs); and X2/Xnsignaling.
 19. An apparatus, comprising one or more units for performingthe method according to claim 1.